Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 1072 1067 [Countdown to the Destruction of Dali]

The "peaceful" resolution of the Gao family's internal strife seemed to bring stability to the Dali Kingdom.

But is it possible?

Zhu Kang's defeat of Zhenla, killing a large number of Zhenla soldiers and looting Zhenla's second largest city has caused a chain reaction in Southeast Asia.

Tribes such as Yuya, Jinzhan, Guci, and Pasi, living on the northern border of Zhenla, broke away from the control of Zhenla and joined the rapidly rising Jinchi Kingdom.

The Jinchi Kingdom's strength increased greatly, and without the threat from the south, it took advantage of the civil strife within the Gao family to launch a fierce attack on Mengle (Xishuangbanna).

When Gao Zhenshou seized the position of prime minister, Xishuangbanna was also taken over by the Jinchi Kingdom.

Moreover, King Bazhen of the Jinchi Kingdom directly moved the capital and made Xishuangbanna his capital. It was obvious that he was going to develop northwards next, and he even expressed his ambition to destroy the Dali Kingdom.

Where did the Golden Tooth Kingdom come from?

This is a tribal federation with a complex ethnic composition, and they are collectively known as the "Golden Tooth Baiyi".

The Jinchi Baiyi gradually merged, and many of their descendants became Dai or Tai (some became Bai).

The Jinchi Kingdom can also be regarded as a country with the Dai people as the main body, especially after they conquered Xishuangbanna, which greatly accelerated the speed of their ethnic integration.

For hundreds of years, these tribes survived in the cracks between Nanzhao (Dali), Annan, Zhenla, Pagan and other countries. They also established regimes twice, but were defeated by the big countries both times. The tribes were forced to form alliances, and the scale of these alliances became larger and larger.

They fought with all the surrounding countries, and became stronger and tougher in each war, forming an extremely tough and warlike folk character.

The men of the tribe are only responsible for hunting, fighting, and iron smelting.

Other tasks, including farming, were done by women with slaves.

Gao Zhenshou, who had just become the prime minister, marched south without stopping to conquer the Jinchi barbarians, because the Jinchi army had already reached Pu'er!

The two sides fought fiercely from winter to spring, with both sides winning and losing.

The Dali Kingdom retained Pu'er but was unable to retake Xishuangbanna.

"Father, we can't fight anymore," Gao Shouchang said, "The generals dare not speak out in front of you, but they come to complain to me. They first fought against the thirty-seven barbarian tribes, and then crossed mountains and rivers to get here. They have been fighting for more than half a year. Moreover... this is Gao Liangcheng's jurisdiction, there is no need to fight for him."

Gao Zhenshou angrily said, "Bullshit, how can this be Gao Liangcheng's territory? Bu'er (Pu'er) was originally under the jurisdiction of the Yinsheng Jiedushi, but it was temporarily assigned to the Weichu Prefecture for custody. As the Prime Minister, I will naturally take it back!"

Xishuangbanna and Pu'er have been producing tea since the Tang Dynasty. The tea trade here is extremely prosperous, providing a continuous source of wealth.

Gao Zhenshou is reluctant to pay the taxes here!

Gao Shouchang said: "The soldiers are resentful. It is almost summer and many soldiers are looking forward to going home to farm. The Jinchi Barbarians have moved their capital to Mengle (Xishuangbanna). They will not stop fighting unless we destroy their country. We are on a long expedition and it will take a long time to determine the winner. We cannot let the army continue to waste time."

If you want to wear a crown, you must bear its weight.

Gao Zhenshou, who had just become prime minister, finally understood Gao Liangcheng's difficulties.

He didn't cause any trouble for those golden-toothed barbarians, so he had to solve this problem now.

As mentioned before, the men of the Jinchi Kingdom only hunted, fought, and smelted iron, and even farming was done by women and slaves. They could always confront each other on the front line, but the army of the Dali Kingdom could not do so.

The longer it takes, the more disadvantageous it will be for the Dali army.

Gao Zhenshou was persuaded by his son and began to summon the generals one after another. Through chatting, he found that most of the generals were unwilling to fight to the death with the Jinchi Barbarians.

Some people even suggested abandoning Pu'er and relying on the mountains and rivers to block the Golden Tooth Barbarians from moving north.

To put it bluntly, even if the commercial taxes collected here are high, what does it have to do with the nobles whose fiefdoms are in the north?
After much deliberation, Gao Zhenshou sent an envoy.

When the envoy met Bazhen, the ruler of the Jinchi Kingdom, he said in an arrogant tone: "The Jinchi Baiyi were originally vassal states of Dali. You are now occupying our royal land. Our Majesty is magnanimous and intends to enthrone you as king..."

Bazhen interrupted directly: "Why would I care about the Dali Kingdom's canonization? I have already been canonized by the Ming Emperor. Emperor Zhu is too controlling. He even forbade me to attack Mengjiao (Jiaozhi), abolished my throne because of this incident, and wanted to take back the golden seal of the king bestowed on me. I am not afraid of the Ming Kingdom, so why would I be afraid of your Dali Kingdom?"

The Dali envoy was speechless.

The remote and barbaric people had no idea how powerful the Ming Dynasty was.

Historically, Bazhen first went to the Southern Song Dynasty to ask for a title. Later, in order to avoid fighting on four fronts, he was forced to accept Dali's title and called himself "Supreme Buddha of Jinglong Golden Palace Kingdom".

Now, Annan had just been changed to Jiaozhi Province, and was busy cleaning up its internal affairs, so it had no time to care about the Jinchi Kingdom. Zhenla was defeated by Zhu Kang again, and rebellions broke out in the country, so it had no time to care about the Jinchi Kingdom. Dali itself was in a mess, and it also didn't want to go to war with the Jinchi Kingdom.

Under such circumstances, how could Bazhen accept the enthronement of the Dali Kingdom?

He even wanted to take advantage of the situation to destroy the Dali Kingdom!

Bazhen grinned, showing his golden teeth, pointed his halberd at the envoy and angrily scolded him: "Also, you are not allowed to call this the Kingdom of Golden Teeth anymore, this is the Kingdom of Jinglong Golden Palace!"

"In the Tang Dynasty you were called the Jinchi...tribe." The Dali envoy was intimidated by their power and omitted the word "barbarian".

Bazhen said: "That is a derogatory term for us!"

Jinchi Manzhen is actually a gold tooth. The braces are made of gold sheets and are only removed when eating.

They also have brother tribes, the Silver Tooth Barbarians and the Black Tooth Barbarians, who also use silver sheets to make braces, or simply dye their teeth black.

This was a privilege reserved for noble men, and was not allowed to commoners or women.

The Dali envoys gradually changed their attitude from being domineering at the beginning, but they still could not convince Bazhen to accept the enthronement.

He could only go back to the city to report the news and come back after a few days.

This time the negotiations were successful. Both sides stopped fighting, and Dali recognized Jinchi's possession of Xishuangbanna, but the Jinchi Kingdom was not allowed to attack the Pu'er area again.

Gao Zhenshou and Bazhen, each with a small army, met outside the city of Pu'er and swore an oath of alliance, and also invited Bodhisattva Buddha to be witnesses.

In early summer, both sides withdrew their troops from Pu'er.

Gao Zhenshou led his army back over the mountains and across the ridges. Before he reached Dali City, a fast horse came to report: "Bulu (Pu'er) is gone!"

"How did it disappear?" Gao Zhenshou was shocked. The messenger said: "The Jinchi barbarian spies disguised themselves as tea vendors and entered the city, hiding in the city. Then the Jinchi army rushed in and attacked. The spies in the city set fire at night, and the defenders fled in panic."

Gao Zhenshou was furious: "That barbarian Bazhen claimed to be the Supreme Buddha, and he dared to break the oath he made in front of the Bodhisattva and Buddha! Isn't he afraid of losing his dignity?"

It's useless to say more.

After Pu'er was lost, the Dali Kingdom was better able to defend the south due to the barriers of mountains and rivers.

But the prerequisite is that all the territories in the south must be abandoned.

In another time and space, the Jinchi Kingdom continued to encroach on Dali's territory, and finally even actually controlled Lincang, Dehong and other places.

Pu'er fell and Gao Zhenshou's prestige plummeted.

He hurried back to Dali City to control the king, and took out a lot of wealth to bribe the Gao princes and promote the titles of the nobles of various surnames.

Finally, the political situation was stabilized.

Bazhen, which had taken over Pu'er, changed its previous aggressive strategy and began to build large-scale projects in Xishuangbanna.

Countless captured civilians and soldiers worked there day and night, and many bodies were dragged away and burned every day. They died of exhaustion.

Not only did they build a new capital, but they also renovated Buddhist temples and even invited eminent monks from Zhenla to be abbots.

He is not only a king, but also a religious leader - the Supreme Buddha.

Then, imitating the neighboring countries, they established a three-level administrative system of "Mang-Qian-Bang". It is similar to the provincial capital and county, but the "Bang" level is more like a larger rural tribe. (In later Yunnan and Southeast Asia, many place names contain the word "Bang", which is very likely related to the Jinchi Kingdom.)
……

After reading the telegram in Luoyang, Zhu Ming couldn't help but sigh: "What a mess. Pu'er has been occupied by others, and the ruler and ministers of Dali are pretending that nothing happened."

Zhang Tong thought: If Prince Yu had not defeated Zhenla and Annan had not become Jiaozhi Province, how could the Jinchi Kingdom dare to march north with all its strength?

Naturally, this could not be said. Zhang Tong said: "The Dali Kingdom has lost cities and territories one after another. The soldiers have no will to fight and the generals have no fighting spirit. We can send troops now."

Li Hanzhang said: "I think we can postpone it for two years. It will take a lot of money and food to conquer Dali and settle the people. The expedition to Western Liao and the settlement of people in Anxi Protectorate in the past two years have almost emptied the national treasury. Fortunately, the weather has been good and there is a surplus."

"We must not miss this opportunity," said Li Bao.

Ling Guxu retorted: "The Prime Minister of Dali is unpopular, and the country's politics will only become more and more chaotic. If we miss the current opportunity, there will be more opportunities to send troops in the future."

Zhang Guangdao said: "Sichuan, Guangxi, and Hunan provinces have already stockpiled food and grass for more than a year in advance. In fact, the military rations have long been sufficient. What the court needs to allocate is only various materials for subsequent immigrants."

Wei Liangchen asked: "This time we are sending troops to Guizhou to settle down. How many immigrants should we set? In addition to Sichuan, which other provinces should provide immigrants? More and more people from Fujian and Guangdong are going to sea. I am afraid it is not a good idea to force immigrants. Guangxi, Hunan, and Hubei should also not be moved."

The ministers argued for a while, and then Zhu Ming began to speak.

"We don't need to send too many troops to conquer Dali this time. We only need to send 40,000 field troops and regular troops. We will select retired soldiers and trained militiamen, a total of 50,000 people, as auxiliary troops. We will try our best to persuade these auxiliary troops to stay in Yunnan."

"The first batch of immigrants totaled 150,000 people from Sichuan, Huainan, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang. They served as laborers in transporting grain for the army, and stayed in Yunnan and Guizhou after the war. Three years later, another 100,000 immigrants were recruited. All of them were organized into baojia groups, and they trained in their spare time, and could farm or fight."

"The Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of War, and the Inspectorate should all send people to accompany the army to properly control the civil and military officials and prevent the mass death of immigrants! Imperial Hospital, summon the best doctors in the country, and collect medicinal materials from all over the country to properly prevent and treat miasma and epidemics among the soldiers and immigrants!"

Minister of Revenue Pan Lianggui said: "Your Majesty, there are too many immigrants. We certainly have enough money, but not enough food. If local governments suddenly purchase food on a large scale, local food prices will definitely soar. Otherwise, we can wait until Anxi Protectorate is self-sufficient and no longer needs to transport food supplies from the interior, and then we can attack Dali?"

Zhu Ming said: "It's not a big deal if the grain price goes up a bit, as long as it's kept within ten coins per pound. The weather has been good in the past two years, and both the government and the people have stored grain. In addition, we can also go to Jiaozhi Province to buy grain."

Under normal circumstances, the price of grain is generally around four or five cents.

During the harvest season, grain merchants would go to the countryside to buy grain, and would even lower the price to two or three cents per pound, leaving farmers in a dilemma as to whether to sell or not.

If there is a bumper harvest, in order to prevent farmers from suffering losses due to low grain prices, local governments will deliberately raise the price and buy the grain at a relatively low price and store it in the Changping Warehouse.

For two consecutive years, the Ming Dynasty enjoyed good weather and the country's granaries had a lot of reserves.

Although the Anxi Protectorate consumed a lot and constantly requested additional immigrants, it only used the granaries in the northern provinces.

Because Sichuan often sent troops to conquer barbarians, there was not much grain stored there.

Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Fujian suffered from a major flood a few years ago, and there have been many minor floods since then. All kinds of constructive restoration work requires money and grain. There is not much grain in stock.

As for Guangdong and Guangxi, it is good enough that they don’t have to go to other provinces to buy grain.

That leaves only Hunan, Hubei and Huainan.

As water conservancy projects became more and more complete and the population gradually increased, the grain production in the two lakes region has caught up.

Huainan has always been a major granary.

40,000 regular soldiers, 50,000 auxiliary soldiers, and 150,000 civilian laborers who also served as immigrants. In addition to the mobilization of supplies from various provinces, it also required the transport of troops and a large number of civilian laborers, as well as the subsequent resettlement of 200,000 soldiers and civilians. The whole process really consumed a lot of food.

It was so large that it could consume all the granaries in Hunan, Hubei and Huainan provinces without affecting the grain transport.

The reason for this is that Emperor Zhu issued a death order that the survival rate of those immigrants must be guaranteed.

An immigrant would need to consume food all the way from conscription to reporting to the county, prefecture, and province, and then all the way to Guizhou and Yunnan, not to mention the officials and troops responsible for conscription and escorting them.

Moreover, the mountain roads in Yunnan and Guizhou are too difficult to travel.

It is estimated that most of the food transported there will be consumed on the rugged road.

The logistical cost of conquering Dali is no less than that of conquering the Western Regions!

Zhu Ming said: "The Inspectorate will send more imperial censors to inspect the local areas. If there is a problem with the Changping warehouse, any problem will be investigated immediately. If there is a fire in the Changping warehouse, everyone from the warehouse clerk to the petty official will be beheaded. The local chief and deputy officials, as well as the officials in charge, will all be dismissed and no longer used. If they are involved in the case, they will be brought to justice."

The ministers held their breath, thinking that another batch of heads would be lost.

"Bai Qi, Duke of Shu, will serve as the chief commander of the southern expedition. Lin Chong, the general of Sichuan, and Yang Zaixing, the general of Guangxi, will serve as deputy generals."

(End of this chapter)